ACCORDING TO CNN, THE
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
WILL FINE TOYOTA $16.4 MILLION
FOR FAILING TO WARN THEM OF
DEFECTS.

THE FIREWORKS SHOW FROM THE
FIRST WEEKEND OF THE NATIONAL
CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL EXCITED
TOURISTS’ INTEREST.

THE WARM WEATHER HAS CHANGED
THE FASHION TRENDS ACROSS THE
YARD. SEE WHO’S STYLE STOOD OUT.

PAGE 4

PAGE 6

White House Staffer Valerie Jarrett Visits HU
BY TAHIRAH HAIRSTON
Campus Editor
Confidently and humbly
standing before the women of
Howard University, Senior Advisor
to President Barack Obama,
Valerie Jarrett, shared her resilient
story and her role as chair of the
White House Council on Women
and Girls.
While Jarrett is invited all
over the world to speak to various
audiences, she said Howard is the
first place she has actually called
to ask to speak. Stepping foot on
Howard’s campus to speak was
not Jarrett’s first connection with
the university; her 87-year-old
father attended Howard for both
undergraduate and medical school,
and now serves as professor emeritus
at the University of Chicago.
“Wow, you are truly a
phenomenal woman,” said senior
chemistry major Lindsey Moore
as she introduced Jarrett to the
audience.
Second-year
doctoral
pharmacy student Ashanta Brady,
who went to high school with
Jarrett’s daughter, said it was a
pleasure to hear her [Jarrett],
especially knowing the path she
had been through. “I come to these
talks not looking for connections or
networking, but for inspiration,”
Brady said. She plans to open
her own clinic in Chicago after
graduation.
Jarrett expressed how her
life experiences have really shaped
her into whom she has become and
she wanted to share her life lessons
with the hopes of making things

easier for young women today. “I
hope I can help guide you along
the way, but you can’t forget the
lesson that life is hard,” she said.
After attending Stanford
University for undergraduate
school and graduating from the
University of Michigan Law
School, Jarrett went on to what
seemed to be the perfect career
working as a lawyer in a law
firm in Chicago. But, she was
miserable.
She said this was the best
job anyone could have with a
nice office space, good salary
and family support. But one day
she just sat in her office and cried
because her heart wasn’t in it.
“Never take the path of
least resistance,” Jarrett said.
“Regardless of what everybody
else tells you, look inside your
own gut and invest in thyself.”
Photo Courtesy of Terricka Johnson
She left her job and went Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to President Barack Obama, held an open discussion yesterday giving advice to Howard
on to work for the first black students about having successful careers.
mayor of Chicago, Richard M.
Daley, where she would become
While working for Mayor family.” Keeping a balance between
be in the position that I am in
deputy chief of staff. “From the first today,” Jarrett said. Her positions Daley, Jarrett said she remembers your work life and personal life is
day I stepped foot into City Hall, in local government helped her one meeting that was right before really important, Jarrett stressed.
I knew I was a part of something with her current position as her daughter’s Halloween parade.
“You can have it all but not
bigger,” Jarrett said. “My worst senior advisor, where she oversees “I was a single mother and if I all at once. Pace yourself or you will
days in the public sector were better intergovernmental affairs.
didn’t go to the parade, no one run out of stamina,” she said.
than my best days in the private
She told the audience of would be there,” she said.
First Lady Paula Whetselsector.”
Jarrett kept looking at her Ribeau, Ph.D., ended the discussion
mostly women it is important to
As women, we are really build relationships with the people watch while she was in the meeting by introducing a new group on
determined to find satisfaction around you who are on all levels. and once Daley asked what was Howard University’s campus,
in our careers and not make it “Listen to your gut but also listen wrong. She told him and he asked Women As Changing Agents
about the money, she said. While to others,” Jarrett said. “Affiliate her what was she doing here? (WACA). The idea was derived from
she was getting comfortable with yourselves with worthy institutions She left to attend her daughter’s Michelle Obama’s speech topic
her previous job, Jarrett said an with people who have integrity.”
parade.
during her visit to Howard last year.
old mentor at her law firm told
“At the end of the day when “We want to create opportunities to
Jarrett said as women when
her to take a leap of faith and do applying for jobs to make sure the you are on your dying bed, you’re address women from the individual
something different.
job caters to their needs. You have not going to wish you could have basis to the interpersonal basis to
“If I would have never left to be your best advocate and ask for worked more but wish you could the community basis,” she said.
my law firm, I definitely wouldn’t what you want, she said.
have spent more time with your

BY CAMILLE AUGUSTIN
Staff Writer
Home Depot is looking
to help assist with funding various projects at Historically Black
Colleges and Universities (HBCU)
with the right tools to better their
campus. Howard University is enrolled in the “Retool Your School”
program to help finance campus
improvements.
According to the Web site,
“Retool Your School” is a campus
improvement grant program that
will provide money for a school’s
improvement project that will have
an enduring impact on the lives of
students, faculty and alumni.
This program also seeks
to create a better environment in
which students can learn, compete
and thrive.
The HBCU with the most
outstanding proposals will receive a
Major Grant of $50,000. But 10
additional HBCUs will each receive
Minor Grants of $10,000.
Howard University is now
in phase two of the program. “In
this phase, we will begin providing
more detailed design information
including designs, materials, budgets and time schedules,” said Alfonzye Chisholm, director of capital planning.
The proposed project will
provide the students with a much
needed exterior plaza for gathering
and shuttle bus waiting. “It will be
constructed at a highly visible central campus location that is already
used for this purpose but has not
been developed to accommodate
this use,” the proposal stated.
In addition, the project

Photo Courtesy of HomeDepot.com

With the help of Home Depot, Howard University is participating in the “Retool
Your School” program, which will award a $50,000 grant to the top proposal.

will include replacing broken bench
seats campus wide. The seating areas will include new benches constructed of highly recyclable content. The benches will be placed
upon eco-friendly gravel and
mulch. New energy efficient solar
LED lighting will also be installed.
A panel will review three
main areas and will judge one part
of the proposal. These areas include the lasting impact, student
impact and sustainable design. The
other part of the selection process
will call for student participation.
Voting began April 5,
2010 and students still have the opportunity until April 15, 2010 to
vote online for their school’s project
and will have the chance to review
other schools and colleges submissions.
Students can vote at homedepotretoolyourschool.com. On
June 15, 2010, 11 schools will be
announced, but only one will receive the $50,000 grant money.

Frank F. Fofie, a senior
sports medicine major, said this is
a good opportunity for the university, but thinks the administration
should also include the replacing
of chalkboards with whiteboards.
“They should also focus on modifying classrooms in addition to the
plans they already listed,” Fofie
said. “But Howard’s participation
in this program is good for the university.”
“This is a good step for
Howard because I think if they seek
to continue to beautify the campus,
maybe students will take even more
pride in their school,” said Tori
Badgett, a senior legal communications major. “This is a positive
influence for the school, and since
10 schools have a chance of receiving $10,000, Howard may just get
that prize money if students begin
to vote.”

In West Virginia, seven
coal miners died during a mine
explosion. According to statements
by officials from Raleigh County’s
coal company, 19 other miners
are feared to be still trapped
underground.
Forty-eight miners were
underground when the explosion
occurred around 3:30 p.m. at
Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch
Mine-South. Don Blankenship,
CEO
and
Massey
Energy
chairman, said the coal company

will not release the victims’ names
until surviving family members are
contacted.
The Upper Big Branch Mine
is operated by a Massey Energy
subsidiary, Performance Coal
Company. The mine has a safety
record questioned by the Mine
Safety and Health Administration
(MSHA), the government coal mine
regulator.
According to CBSnews.
com, MSHA has fined the mine
due to safety violations, and Massey
Energy has not paid any of the fines
> See MINES page 3

Students Choose to Stay
in D.C. for the Summer
BY STACY-ANN ELLIS
Contributing Writer
For many residents of
Howard University’s dormitories,
the end of the school year means
booking airplane tickets, calling
storage companies and repacking
their possessions into boxes. But
for a minority of dorm dwellers,
the start of summer brings a much
shorter to-do list, because they
have opted to spend the season in
Washington.
Students choose to stay
in Washington, D.C. rather than
return home because of the
opportunities available to intern,
build friendships and further their
academic careers.
Among them is Sorrae

Adams, a junior psychology major
from Lansing, Mich. She will
spend her summer in the Ronald
E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate
Achievement Program, which helps
undergraduates interested in getting
doctoral degrees get research
experience under the mentorship
of Dr. Jules Harrell and doctoral
candidate Sheronda Shearon.
Adams will then take math
and Spanish classes during the
second summer session.
“This will be my first summer
staying in D.C. and, like everyone
says, you should at least experience
one summer here,” she said. “We’ll
see based on this summer if I want
to go home next summer or not.”

HU Student Finalist In ‘Glee’ TV Show
BY LAUREN GASPARD
Staff Writer
Viewers everywhere tune in
every Tuesday on FOX Network
to watch the hit network television
show “Glee.” This upcoming season, the cast may feature one of
Howard University’s own displaying her talents on worldwide television.

Junior musical theatre major Tiffany Johnson received a call
from her grandmother’s caretaker
about a talent contest taking place
over Spring Break in the Chicago
area. The audition required each
contestant to show their abilities of acting, singing or dancing.
Johnson chose to sing a snippet of
the famous gospel song “Amazing
Grace,” along with a short original

monologue. After the judges’ deliberation, Johnson was chosen to be
in the top 20 contestants whom if
chosen, would have a chance to appear in the hit TV show.
Every cast member is chosen
based on votes from the general
public via the “Glee” casting call
Web site. The amount of public
votes will determine who will move
on to become the next cast mem-

More From Valerie Jarrett
Getting Jobs In
This Economy:
“Be persistent. Volunteer if you can at places to show
them your work ethic. Be creative, go at it in an unusual orthodox way. Don’t be afraid to do
something different.”
Dealing With
Discrimination:
“You have to breakdown stereotypes. What I have
learned is that people are pretty much the same, we are
a country of immigrants everyone came from
somewhere.”
Separating Personal From Work:
(On Her Relationship With Obama)
“I don’t separate it; it gives me the permission to be
really honest and candid with him. I also have to
compartmentalize. When I am in the office I only talk
about work.”
Making It As Women:
“Showing up, working hard, being willing to fail. You
are going to fail, it’s not if it’s how?”

ber. “I would like to see support
from the student body on this,”
Johnson said. “I am excited no
matter what happens. It was such
a great opportunity to be in the top
20, but it would be even better to
win.”
To vote, go to www.myfoxchicago.com, click on the “Glee
Casting Call Contest” in the “Hot
Topics” section.

Johnson’s career goals coincide with the opportunity to be on
the show, making her even more
excited about the chance to make
an appearance. She plans to be in
the field of dance, choreography,
acting or musical theatre in the
near future. “Though it would be
wonderful to win, it would not deter me if I don’t,” Johnson said.

Fashion Merchandising
No Longer a ‘Minor’
Option for Students
BY CANDESE CHARLES
Contributing Writer
Schools throughout Howard University have been advised
to no longer allow students to
select fashion merchandising as
a minor.
The Fine Arts Department has decided that they would
like fashion merchandising to be
focused on more as a major.
With students not being
allowed to take fashion merchandising as a minor next semester,
the Fine Arts Department hopes
students will pursue majors in the
department more. Students can
choose any other area of study
in the Fine Arts Department for
their minor to substitute the loss
of the fashion merchandising
minor.
The School of Communications recently alerted their
students that it is not beneficial
to take fashion merchandising
as a minor. The school advisers
have noticed that many students
become consumed in the classes
that the fashion merchandising
minor requires and begin to fall
behind in the courses that are essential to their majors.
School of Communications Academic Adviser Bernadette Williams said, “When I see
there are concerns, I call a meeting and advise the students on
what action to take next.”
Williams further explained

that this decision was made and
consulted with the faculty and
students when problems with the
minor were recognized.
Although there are a
few journalism majors with fashion merchandising minors, these
students will be allowed to keep
their current minor..
Students in the remaining
schools will be able to keep their
fashion merchandising minor
as well. Yet, incoming students
will not be granted the option of
choosing fashion merchandising
as their minor.
This may just be the first
of many minors to be taken off
the list of choices offered to students. Williams said she will continue to make suggestions concerning minors, majors or any
other area that is of concern to
students. She said that with every
decision made, she plans to include all input and thoughts that
may affect the outcome.
As of now, Williams is
pondering if the entrepreneurship minor will be one of the
minors she suggests students not
take. She plans to discuss this
with her colleagues furthermore,
and it will be brought to the students’ attention as a decision for
which they could provide input.

National Panel Debates Controversial Breast Cancer Screening
Guidelines, African-American Women at Howard University Hospital
OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
Special to The Hilltop
The new guidelines issued
by the U.S. Preventive Services
Task Force (USPTF) recommending fewer breast cancer screenings
and beginning them at a later age
has sparked heated debate across
the nation.
Nowhere are they more hotly contested than among AfricanAmerican physicians and health
care professionals, who say the new
guidelines could lead to the deaths
of thousands of African-American
women who otherwise might have
been saved through early detection.
The subject comes into full
focus as MSNBC political analyst
Michelle Bernard and a panel of
distinguished experts, including
health care activists, government
officials and the nation’s leading
cancer physicians and health care
professionals, tackle the subject
from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday,

April 12, in the Howard University
Hospital Towers Auditorium, 2041
Georgia Ave. NW.
Included on the panel are
Jenny Luray, president of the Komen Advocacy Alliance and senior
vice president of government affairs for Susan G. Komen for the
Cure; Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall, cancer
researcher, former president of the
American Cancer Society and the
Society of Surgical Oncology and
professor of surgery at Howard
University College of Medicine;
Dr. Eric Novack, an orthopedic
surgeon and chair of the conservative advocacy group Arizonans
for Health Care Freedom; U.S.
Rep. Donna Christensen, a Democratic delegate to Congress from
the U.S. Virgin Islands, Dr. Worta
McCaskill Stevens, head of Breast
Prevention and the Minority-based
Clinical Community Oncology
Program for the National Cancer
Institute, and Dr. Charles P. Mouton, chair of the Department of
Community and Family Medicine

at Howard University College of
Medicine and Howard University
Hospital.
The Howard University
Cancer Center and the Howard
University Hospital Department
of Surgery are hosting the discussion.
The USPTF recommended
in November that women begin
mammograms at age 50 instead
of age 40, although women in
their 40s account for 20 percent of
breast cancer patients. Additionally, the task force recommended
women get mammograms every
other year rather than annually.
Dr. Edward Cornwell,
Howard University Hospital surgeon in chief and chair of the Department of Surgery at Howard
University College of Medicine,
said he was pleased to have such a
diverse group discuss a challenging
subject.
“This topic is critically important, because medical professionals, policy makers and the

public need a fuller understanding
of the implications of these guidelines.” Cornwell said. “They can
be truly significant in the health
care of women, and particularly
among African-American women.
Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick,
director of the Howard University Cancer Center and chief of
the Division of General Surgery
at Howard University College of
Medicine, agrees.
“This change in the guidelines is going to have a significant
impact on African-American
women, and I don’t think it will
be for the good,” Frederick said.
“Although they are less likely to get
breast cancer, African-American
women are more likely to die from
the disease.”
Part of the reason for their
higher death rate is because African-American women are already
less likely to get the life-saving
mammograms that detect cancers
in the early, more treatable stages,
Frederick said.

“My concern is that these
recommendations could cause
African-American women to get
fewer breast screenings than they
do now, and they are already far
too low,” he said. “Consequently,
we would have even more AfricanAmericans who come to us with
later stages disease, which makes it
harder to treat and makes the outcomes worse.”
Additionally, he said, African American women are more
likely to be diagnosed with the
types of breast cancer that are
harder to treat.
“We believe that is also part
of the reason for the higher death
rate,” he said. “That is even more
reason for them to get regular
screenings and to begin at an earlier age.”
The symposium, entitled
“Changing Cancer Screening
Guidelines and the Effects on Cancer Disparities,” is free and open to
the public. It is sponsored by Susan
G. Komen for the Cure.

Don’t Forget!
Last Day to Withdraw from Classes is
Friday, April 9th, 2010.

T H E H I LLTOP

NEWS 3

Students Make D.C. Their Summer Home
Continued from FRONT, D.C.
She will be housed in the
Howard Plaza Towers East.
Some students are excited
to stay away from home for the
summer. Brianna Alexander, a
sophomore political science major
from Southfield, Mich., learned
from her last summer experience
that going home is not always
productive.
“I went home last summer,
and it took me forever to find a
job. I told myself I was not going
home next summer. There’s always
a move to make in D.C. and it’s
not like that in Detroit,” Alexander
said.
Adams wants to build

friendships during her summer in
Washington.
“Some say that people that
you hang out with for the summer,
you get closer bonds with because
there is a limited crowd here. I want
to be here to experience that,” she
said.
Chelsea
Andrews,
a
freshman physician assistant major
from Philadelphia, will be used to
D.C. by the time she graduates. As
a member of the swim team, she is
required to stay during the summer
to train for the upcoming year.
“Most likely, I’ll be here all
four years for swimming,” Andrews
said. When asked if she would ever
get tired of the Howard summer
setting, she said, “Not at all. I don’t

West Virginia Coal
Mine Explodes
Continued from FRONT, MINES
in full. Last year, MSHA fined the
mine $897,325, but Upper Big
Branch only paid $168,393 of the
fine. In 2010, MSHA fined the
mine $188,769, and $2,676 has
been paid to date.
The explosion marks the
second fatal accident in the mine’s
history. On March 29, 2001,
Herbert J. Meadows, a continuous
machine operator, was injured by a

rock that fell from a 7.3 feet drop.
Meadows, 48, died as a result of his
injuries two days later.
Last
month,
MSHA
released figures that showed
that of the 491 mines required
to update their tracking and
wireless communications, only 34
mines currently have met these
requirements. The coal mine
regulator approved 412 plans to
improve mines, and 79 plans are
currently pending.

mind staying in D.C. I’m in college,
why not spend as much time here
as possible? I’ve been at home for
17 years of my life.”
To get around the task of
finding summer housing, students
look to university housing. Howard
students can participate in the
Work for Housing program.
“The Work for Housing
program is a student internship in
and of itself, serving as an excellent
supplement to the summer
expenses that Washington, D.C. is
known for,” said Kenyatta Hobson,
community director for Meridian
Hall.
Hobson reflected on his past
days as a conference assistant.
“I really needed the benefit

of summer housing at that time
and really enjoyed working with
the summer guests to our campus,”
he said.
Not all Howard students
rely on the university’s dormitories.
Alexander will take courses at
Georgetown University and do an
internship on Capitol Hill.
“I’ll be staying on campus
at Georgetown the whole summer
and working on campaigns for
Ford Motor Company. It should be
a good experience. It’s life outside
of Howard,” she said.
Though students believe
that staying in Washington, D.C.
has many advantages, it is no
substitute for their hometowns.
Stuart Crooks, a sophomore civil

engineering major from Kingston,
Jamaica, will be a long way from
home.
“There’s no place like
home,” he said. “Money would be
the main reason why I stay, just to
make money. I have a lot of friends
in the area, but I would prefer to
go home.”
Past the homesickness,
schoolwork and internship frenzies,
students use summertime to get
accustomed to staying long-term in
the city they have grown to love.
“I love D.C.,” Crooks said.
“If I were to see myself anywhere
in the United States, it’d be D.C.
That’s all I know right now.”

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www.twitter.com/thehilltop
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Attention all Bison!
Don’t Forget that Friday
April 9th is the last day to drop a class!
(32 days left until May 8th
Commencement Ceremony)

Hilltop Tip #12
Get a summer internship. But only if you want
a job after you graduate.

T H E H I LLTOP

4 METRO

April 6, 2010

A Cherry Blossom Weekend
Fireworks Display
BY EDWIN KARIUKI
Contributing Writer
Thousands of spectators
lined up along the Waterfront in
Southwest Washington waiting
for the annual Cherry Blossom
Festival fireworks display to begin
on Saturday night
The crowd had been
around since 5 p.m., enjoying the
events prior to the display entitled
“Prelude to the Cherry Blossom
Fireworks.” The prelude consisted of music from live bands, arts
and craft activities and food from
local vendors. It lasted up until
show time.
The fireworks display,
sponsored by Safeway and The
Washington Examiner, took place on
Easter weekend this year and the
spirit of Easter was in the air all
throughout the event. Kids wore
illuminating bunny ears and took
pictures with the Easter bunny.
One of the local restaurants that
had a vendor stand sponsored a
mini Easter Egg Hunt that attracted many young children.
As 8:30 p.m. approached,
the railing along the waterfront
was filled, and all eyes were to the
sky.
A University of Maryland
graduate student, Muala Ndaka,
who attended the event with
some friends said, “The fireworks
are my favorite part of the Cherry Blossom Festival and this is the
first time I’m coming without my
parents, it’s like our family tradition.”
Spectators watched from
the balconies of their apartment
buildings, picnic blankets set up
on the grass and children from

the shoulders of their fathers.
The first whistle and pop of
a firework instantly silenced the
crowd and as the display continued to light up the sky each bang
was accompanied by “oohs” from
the crowd.
“Theft in D.C. is at a high
and as much as I would like to enjoy the display I have to watch the
peoples’ belongings while they
watch the fireworks,” said Anita
Rossen, loss prevention officer.
The National Cherry
Blossom Festival is a fusion of
Japanese and American cultures.
Fireworks are a common part of
celebration in the Japanese culture and the country is believed
to have the most magnificent fireworks display. During fireworks
displays, the Japanese usually enjoy music and food from vendors
on the side of the street much like
at the Cherry Blossom Festival.
After the last of the fireworks, the rush to get to the metro
ensued. Parents put children in
their strollers and headed to the
Waterfront-SEU Metro stop.
Gregory Hines, a tourist who brought his family down
from Maine, said, “We’re going to
sit back and enjoy the view of the
waterfront while everyone rushes
to the train so we can avoid the
packed situation. We learned that
lesson the hard way earlier.”
The National Cherry
Blossom festivals ends on April
11 with the 10 Mile Run at the
Washington Monument. Some
more notable upcoming events include the Japanese Street Festival
and the National Cherry Blossom
Festival Parade which both take
place downtown on April 10.

Howard University student Kaidi
McMillan said he and his friends
went to see the cherry trees
blooming and parked as close
to the Tidal Basin as possible.
McMillan was able to see the
fireworks and said the experience
was great.
Howard University alumna and
Washington D.C. native Leslie
Mcrae said she has traveled to
see the trees for the last five
years. She enjoys the calm and
peaceful atmosphere. She added
that “everyone is excited and
that the ceremony for the cherry
trees is a time of celebration and
enjoyment.”
Belinda and Shirely are two
friends who traveled from Colorado to see the trees. The women
rested on a bench and viewed the
cherry trees that hung over the
Tidal Basin.
Another couple, Kathy and Terry,
said they had travelled about 800
miles to see the trees at full peak.
They sat under a tree looking out
at the Tidal Basin and taking in
the beautiful scenery.
Many more individuals sat under
trees with family, while having
picnics or conversations. Kids
were climbing in trees to be
photographed. The first weekend
of events brought a heavy traffic
flow of individuals and the following weekend is expected to have
the same outcome.
- Ishna Hagan, Contributing Writer

Gala Dinner
Cruise Aboard
the Odyssey
Thursday

Cherry Blossom Parade
Festival
Saturday

LeDroit Park

Photo Credit - Wikipedia

LeDroit Park was founded in 1873 by Amzi Barber. Its residents appreciate their neighborhood for all it has to offer.

BY MAYA RHODAN
Staff Writer
Any given day in the quaint,
historic neighborhood of LeDroit
Park in Northwest Washington is
picturesque and today is no different. Sunlight beams onto the
brick -paved block of 3rd and Elm
streets as people from all walks of
life travel up and down the residential street lined with colorful row
houses.
The cries of cheerful children can be heard from the nearby
park, as the boisterous bark of a
dog somewhere in the distance
bounces off the brick of the Victorian style homes.
“This is how we live,” reads
the colorful LeDroit Park mural on the side of a row house on
Elm Street, and from the scenery
alone one can gather that “living”
in LeDroit Park is as easy as the
breeze that is rustling the budding
leaves on the trees.
LeDroit Park, founded in
1873 by then Howard University
Trustee, Amzi Barber, is located
Southeast of Howard University’s

main campus and was one of the
first suburbs of Washington.
The area was originally developed as a white neighborhood,
but has been historically African
American since around 1893 when
the first African American, Octavius Williams, moved into the area
after a protest by Howard University students destroyed the fence
that divided its black students from
their white neighbors.
E. Gail Anderson Holness,
Commissioner of the Advisory
Neighborhood Commission in
Area 1B11, can’t help but be regaled by the history of the area
whenever she travels through.
“I can’t help but get nostalgic whenever I’m in LeDroit Park,”
Holness said. “I remember walking through as a little girl. I loved
the homeliness and warmth of the
neighborhood and the people in it.
It’s such a historic place. It is D.C.’s
hidden oasis.”
The history of the area
lies in its relationship with Howard University, as ex-home of the
famed Griffith Stadium, and its
residents, who are among some
of the most prominent figures in

African-American history. Civil
rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson,
poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, Nobel
Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche,
and former mayor Walter Washington were all once residents of
LeDroit Park.
“The heroes of the black
community that have passed
through the LeDroit Park area, either to live or just to stay for one
night are endless,” Holness said.
“There is a legacy here that can
never be erased, no matter how
the neighborhood has changed in
recent years.”
This
sunny
afternoon,
throughout the streets of LeDroit
Park people can been seen out and
about, enjoying the weather peacefully and generally without harm.
In the late ‘80s and ‘90s, however,
LeDroit was a different place.
Crime had ravaged the neighborhood and drug addicts and dealers
could be found on every corner,
causing the black professionals the
area used to attract to find a home
elsewhere.
In the age of Obama and
throughout the Williams and Fenty
administrations, the diversity of

Sakura Matsuri Japanese
Street Festival
Saturday

LeDroit Park area has grown tremendously bringing a new breed
of residents to the middle-class
neighborhood.
Ayo Handy-Kendi, the membership coordinator for the LeDroit
Park Civic Association, and an 11year resident of the area, has seen
the neighborhood transform from
a “haven for shooting and killing”
to what she considers D.C.’s most
beautiful and serene little hideaway.
Kendi believes gentrification has
had a lot to do with this change.
“When I first moved here,
it was a predominately black area,
people had been here for years
and they were settled. Now there
is a lot more different people, but
unfortunately Gentrification has
created a level of fear of change
and a recognition of the different
classes of people that there are
now,” Handy-Kendi said. “But the
older residents have a fear of letting go. There is a certain degree
of stepping back that has come
since white people moved in.”
“At the end of the day, it is
really a beautiful neighborhood,”
she said. “It has a sense of neighborliness, the people who have
lived here for a long time have
created a bond, like a kin ship and
that’s what keeps me here.”
Howard University students
live in the LeDroit Park area since
it is located just south of the main
campus and east of the Howard
University Hospital. Tyesha Tucker, a senior insurance major, likes
the diversity of the neighborhood,
but enjoys learning from the experiences of her older neighbors.
“The members of the community are very diverse. They
come from all walks of life, but the
neighborhood brings them together,” Tucker said. “I love that my
older neighbors reminisce about
their younger years and share stories of the old neighborhood and
how D.C. has evolved. The greatest benefit has been gaining the
knowledge and wisdom of those
who have lived in the area before
me. They have been witness to a lot
of historical moments.”
Emil Ali, 24, who considers
LeDroit Park, Shaw and Truxton
Circle his homes, enjoys the “walk-

T H E H I LLTOP

Credit Union
Cherry Blossom 10M Run
Sunday

ability” of the area and the access
it has to downtown D.C. He finds
the architecture, his neighbors and
the community to be the most appeasing aspects of life in LeDroit
Park.
“I think our homes have great
character, but our neighbors have
better character. During the spring,
we all maintain our yards and a few
of us sweep the sidewalk,” Ali said.
“Everyone is friendly. I know half
the people on my block and speak
to them regularly.”
The LeDroit Park area is still
in the process of redeveloping, but
it has managed to avoid the pains
of overdeveloping throughout its
history and has maintained its distinctive aesthetic. In fact, 50 of the
original 64 James McGill designed
homes still remain in the area, linking the area back to its 19th century establishment.
“There isn’t a whole lot of
area to LeDroit Park, but it seems
as if its like a little community
about itself, it has its own identity.
I’ve lived in places like Anacostia,
and I couldn’t exactly say that,”
Handy-Kendi said. “The area also
has some of the best architecture
of houses in the city, if you’re interested in looking at buildings, this
is the place to walk around. It’s fascinating.”
Handy-Kendi does not like
the fact that housing affordability has decreased drastically as the
shaky market has made these historic homes more costly. As a renter, Handi-Kendi was disappointed
by the change, but was more hurt
by the closing of the public housing unit on V Street.
“I was very sorry that the
housing unit was closed down.
That brought a little income diversity, it’s not as much as it used to
be,” Handy-Kendi said. Now there
is an assumption that people have
“money” so there is a little bit more
crime, petty robberies and burglaries have been happening but that
is a blessing – I remember when
it was really bad up in this little
area!”
Despite all the changes that
LeDroit Park has seen, the history
of the neighborhood remains the
glue that keep the residents secure
and comfortable in their inner-city
sanctuary.
“Throughout our lives, as we
make new history we often forget
about the history we already had.
I hope that LeDroit Park is one of
the areas that is able to maintain its
history, because it’s so rich and so
connected to the African-American
community,” Holness said.

4 BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY

April 6, 2010

iPad Debuts, Mixed Reviews Among Students

BY GERRON JORDAN
Staff Writer

This past Saturday marked a
huge day for Apple and it’s Chief
Executive Ofﬁcer, Steve Jobs as
they released their newest technology, the iPad.
For many of those who were
devoted enough to stand in long
lines all across the country to be the
ﬁrst to get their hands on the newest technology, some say it mirrored
the frenzy that followed the release
of the very ﬁrst iPhone just three
years ago.
“It was cool because me and
my friends took a day trip to New
York City on Saturday and we
were able to go to the Apple store
in Times Square and see the craziness,” said sophomore mechanical
engineering major, Kevon Ticer.
“It was really crazy. At ﬁrst we were
going to stand in line and see if we
could at least see one, but there was
no time for games,” he said.
However, even with the fan
frenzy following the new iPad, Apple’s biggest task still lies ahead of
them according to Jessica Mintz of
the Associated Press.
“With the iPad, which ﬁts
somewhere between phone and
computer, Apple must convince
people who already have smart
phones, laptops, e-book readers,
set-top boxes and home broadband

connections that they need another
device that serves many of the same
purposes,” said Mintz.
“I don’t really see the need
for an iPad,” said sophomore legal
communications major, Michael
Roy who owns an iPod and a MacBook. “I think it would be different
if it did things that my computer,
iPod and phone don’t already do,”
he said.
The iPad is essentially a
much larger version of Apple’s
popular iPhone, without the calling
capabilities.
Just a half-inch thick, the device has a touch screen that measures 9.7 inches on the diagonal nearly three times the iPhone’s.
Also like the iPhone, it has no
physical keyboard.
For now, Apple is selling iPads that only connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi. Those models start
at $499. Versions that also have a
cellular data connection will be
available by the end of the month.
They will cost $130 more, with the
most expensive at $829.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Beth Goza has had
iPhones and other smart phones,
along with a MacBook Air laptop,
yet she believes the iPad has a place
in her digital lineup.
She likened it to a professional tennis player owning different sneakers for grass, clay and con-

Photo courtesy of Reuters

Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds the iPad, a fusion of a computer and a phone, which was sold out hours after its debut.

crete courts.
“At the end of the day, you
can get by with one or the other,”
she said outside an Apple store in
Seattle’s University Village mall.
Sophomore ﬁlm production
major, Crystal Roper, serves as an

eBay Inc. Set to Launch
Exclusive Fashion Site

BY EVAN HOLLINS
Staff Writer
In an attempt to redeﬁne its
reputation and become more of a
competition to other retail stores
and Web sites, eBay Inc. recently
launched a new microsite, fashion.
ebay.com.
The new development is the
latest of a series of changes that will
help the Web site act more like an
outlet mall or “private sale” Web
site with merchandise being priced
anywhere from 30 to 50 percent
off.
Though eBay is the largest
online clothing seller, it has the reputation of just selling other people’s
castoffs, in addition to being a site
that is hard to navigate due to its
poor search engine.
The new development has
eBay working with major fashion
brands such as Hugo Boss and
Lord & Taylor to act as sellers. The
company plans to add more brands
and exclusive fashions later in the
spring.

Some have difﬁculty in believing that eBay can remake its image after people have held a certain
perception of the Web site for so
long.
“I feel like it will be difﬁcult
for eBay to set itself out as a site
that sells new and quality clothing
when they have such a reputation
for auctioning used things where
customers have difﬁculty deciding
if they are being cheated out of
their money or not,” said George
Chapman, sophomore broadcast
journalism major.
Many stores have expressed
interest in working with eBay’s new
microsite, expressing conﬁdence
that the site will be an effective way
to sell off excess merchandise and
expand the amount of consumers.
“This collection gives us the
opportunity to reach a broad, global audience,” said Kathy Kalesti,
president of clothing line Narciso
Rodriguez, in an interview with the
Associated Press.
The components of the microsite, which feature new selling
formats, gallery-style photographs,

and a better search engine, will be
applied to eBay’s other categories
such as technology, media, and
home and garden.
eBay Inc. expects the new
fashion strategy to put it in direct
competition with Amazon.com,
Macy’s, and Target and increase. In
order to combat the issue of auction
fraud and counterfeit goods, company ofﬁcials hope to gain more of
the public’s trust by working with
major stores and suppliers.
Despite some skepticism regarding eBay’s new microsite, some
believe eBay can achieve its goal
of reestablishing its image with the
new additions to the Web site.
“It can work if it works with
legit clothing lines and the clothing
is quality. They also need to form
partnerships with clothing lines
that cater more to our generation
because our generation uses eBay a
lot and will be more likely to use the
new site ﬁrst,” said Alex Barnes, a
sophomore ﬁlm major.

“The successful man will proﬁt from his mistakes
and try again in a different way.”
-Dale Carnegie
[An American writer and lecturer, Dale Carnegie developed famous courses in self
improvement and public speaking. He wrote “How to Win Friends and Inﬂuence
People”, a book that is a massive best-seller. ]

Apple Campus Representative and
says that programs will soon be put
into play to get representation of
the iPad on campus, although she
feels it may not be as popular as it
has been over the country.
“I just feel like a lot of stu-

dents aren’t going to want to pay
all that money for something that is
kind of useless,” said Roper. “But
then again, Howard students tend
to be attracted to trends that are
popular and expensive,” she added.

This
Just
In.....
• HP is set to debut an iPad-like device
with two video cameras-one for environmental images and one that captures the person holding the device.
This “slate” computer also features
a touch screen and HP ofﬁcials have
yet to announce a release date or
price tag.
• Among the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
nominees is “The Internet.” No word
yet on who will accept the prize if
awarded, but web creators including
Larry Roberts, Vint Cerf and Tim
Berners-Lee also received nominations in respective categories.
• According to the company, Apple delivered more than 300,000 iPads on
its ﬁrst day. These ﬁgures included
pre-orders that were delivered Saturday.
• Llse Aigner, Consumer Protection
Minister of Germany, criticized Facebook on its handling of personal
information and data urging the social networking site to upgrade privacy settings.
• General Motors is planning on installing new brake safety measures
to prevent unintended acceleration
in all it vehicles worldwide by 2012.

Information compiled by

Alexis K. Barnes, Business & Technology Editor.

Interested in writing for Business & Technology?
Need to Fulﬁll Publication Requirements?
E-mail hilltopbt@gmail.com
with your information or story ideas!

T H E H I LLTOP

6

LIFE & STYLE

April 6, 2010

April showers make
springtime bloom at howard

Taylor Hill, a sophomore painting major, was seen doing portraits on The Yard for donations.

Bree Gant - Photo Editor

H
U
Bree Gant - Photo Editor

Senior Ashley Iving (top right) was caught rockinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; a killer pair of wedges in front of the Fine Arts building. Sophomore Breann Norwood (above) was spotted coming out of Blackburn in a cute spring dress.

Bree Gant - Photo Editor

Junior Camille Walton (middle left) caught in the prefect spring skirt in front of Blackburn working on her tan. Senior Nicole Taylor (bottom left) was caught wearing quite the political statement. There
were guys (above right) bringing a little entertainment to The Yard by playing some of their favorite tunes as well as painting.

T H E H I LLTOP

EDITORIALS & PERSPECTIVES 7

Daily Sudoku
Directions:
Each row, each column and each 3x3 box must
contain each and every digit 1-9 exactly once.

Sean Robinson - Photo Editor

April Fool’s Day Joke
Too Much to Handle?
Thursday of last week
marked April Fool’s Day,
one of the many unofﬁcial
holidays enjoyed by people
all over the country. Each
year, thousands of people
play pranks on their family
and friends on the ﬁrst day
of April, and strive to top
the prank they pulled the
previous year. This year, The
Hilltop joined in on the fun,
publishing a prank issue. At
ﬁrst glance, it was a regular
paper, but when students
picked it up to read the
front page stories, they
realized the stories were
a little outdated, 22 years
to be exact. The front
page stories were slightly
tweaked from a 1988
April Fool’s edition of
The Hilltop.
There was an overwhelming response to
the prank once students
either realized something
wasn’t right, or turned to the
second page of the paper to
see the announcement that
the whole thing was an April
Fool’s Day hoax. However,
some of the Bison family
didn’t share the laugh with
the rest of the Howard community, which was proven by
the perspective submission
submitted several days later
from a particular administrator who was very much
offended by the harmless
practical joke.
The
administrator
complained that he was
contacted at 5:30 a.m. on

the morning of April 1 by
a “colleague of the international community,” who
was extremely concerned
about what was going on
at Howard after seeing the
prank on the ﬁrst page of
the paper. The perspective
goes on to explain that President Obama recently signed
a bill that affects HBCUs,
and many educational institutions have been forced to
shut their doors due to lack
of funding, insinuating that

the best of our ability, and although sometimes we do fall
short, it is never our intention to mislead nor cause any
harm to our readership. We
were careful not to post the
false front page on our Web
site, thehilltoponline.com,
and consequently confuse
our online readership, including those in the international community. The April
Fool’s prank was strictly for
the Howard University campus only.
Several
other
reputable universities
around the nation annually publish similar
publications,
The Hilltop endorses light- prank
including one of the
leading student newshearted humor, and in no
papers in the nation,
way intends to offend its
the Georgetown Hatchet.
Google
was another
readers.
corporation that decided to participate in the
fun. While speaking
such inappropriate “foolish- with our peers, we did notice
ness” as an April Fool’s Day that more people appreciprank could cause Howard ated our humor than were
to be in danger of a similar offended by it – however, for
fate. The administrator then those who were offended,
demanded an apology from please consider this as a sinThe Hilltop on behalf of the cere apology. For the memrest of the Howard commu- bers of our readership who
nity.
acknowledged the prank and
For the members of the light-hearted humor that
our Howard family who The Hilltop maintains, we
share this administrator’s thank you for understanding
sentiments and were of- and we thank all of our confended by our attempt to stituents for reading.
participate in the April Fool’s
fun, we apologize. We do
recognize our duty to deliver
accurate and timely news to

Our View:

Perspective

Want to write for
The Hilltop?
Come grab a story at our next budget
meeting.
Sunday at 6 p.m. in the Howard Plaza Towers
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P-Level

T H E H I LLTOP

The Nation’s Only Black Daily Collegiate Newspaper

Crystal J. Allen
Editor-In-Chief
Jada F. Smith
Managing Editor

Who’s on your Mind?

Tahirah Hairston
Campus Editor
When you wake up in
the morning and you go to
your closet, what is running
through your mind? I know
I usually dress depending
on my current mood or the
weather. Being a student at
Howard University, I am
constantly conscious of who
I am and the decisions I
make – including the clothes
I wear.
Before stepping
onto Howard’s campus, I
heard of the various titles
associating Howard with
a love for fashion among
its students. “The Fashion
Capital HBCU,” “A Fashion
Show,” the list goes on. Not
trying to use pre-existing
rumors about the university,
I stepped on The Yard with
a fresh slate only to be conﬁrmed in a way. I was awed
by the fact that everyone I
saw was so “dressed up” for
no reason at all – like fresh
hair, heels, and makeup just
to go to breakfast.
So this is the Howard
everyone was talking about?
Yet, I couldn’t help but
notice the stares I received
as I wore sweats one day to
class as if I had blue slime
on my face. For a moment, I
thought it was only me who

noticed this heavy materialism and judgment as result
of it that plagued the Howard University campus.
Throughout the
year, I have been able to
create the woman I want
to be. A woman that feels
and knows she is beautiful even if she is wearing a
garbage bag. However, the
constant theme of materialism and “looking ﬂy 24/7”
has always been in the
air yet never discussed. I
have overheard girls in the
bathroom express how they
feel pressured to “stay on all
the time” here at Howard.
I have even seen people
change their outﬁts 3 times
a day.
This argument isn’t
to attack or judge anyone,
but to spark conversation
and awareness of this issue.
Before you get all hot about
how “well if somebody felt
pressured, then it’s their
problem,” or “that ain’t
no problem,” hear me out.
I have no problem with
people dressing how they
please – do you! However,
I have a problem with a
girl who doesn’t come from
money and feels once she
gets to Howard, that person

inside isn’t good enough.
She can’t wear the
clothes everyone wears and
feels pressure to “keep up”
by however means necessary. Around this time of
the year, when she looks in
the mirror she is no longer
the girl she was when she
entered. She doesn’t listen
to the same music, like or
do the same things. She
has experienced more than
the average “growth” as a
college freshman; “she” has
changed. So, if this girl isn’t
one, that’s beautiful – just
be aware of your body language if you see her because
you are not better.
It’s ﬁne if Howard has
some students with fashion
sense, but fashion sense is
not universal. It’s unique to
each person and we have so
much other stuff to pride
ourselves on as Bison than
the clothes we are allowed to
buy. If this girl is you, then
you make me so grateful to
have had the guts to write
this for you.
Michelle Spears,
freshman business
management major

The Hilltop encourages its readers to share their opinions with the newspaper through letters to the
editor or perspectives. All letters should include a complete address and telephone number and should be
sent electronically on to hilltopeic@gmail.com.
Any inquiries for advertisements should be sent directly to The Hilltop Business
Ofﬁce at campusadvertising@thehilltoponline.com

THE HILLTOP

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Washington, DC 20001
(202) 806-4724 (Editorial)
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businessofﬁce@thehilltoponline.com
Now in its 85th year, The Hilltop is published Monday through Friday by
Howard University students. With a readership of 7,000, The Hilltop is the largest
black collegiate newspaper in the nation.
The opinions expressed on the Editorial & Perspectives page are the views
of the The Hilltop Editorial Board and those of the authors and do not necessarily
represent Howard University or its administration.
The Hilltop reserves the right to edit letters for space and grammatical errors
and any inappropriate, libelous or defamatory content. All letters must be submitted a
week prior to publication.

T H E H I LLTOP

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